The Island of the City and the Left Bank

Wow, so much was done today. Typically how this thing works is we have "class" every morning which consists of a required trip, typically to a museums, then the afternoon is free. Today we were doing stuff until 3pm. I joked about how it was a Saturday and we were in “class” for the longest time yet. We left for the Island of the City at around 9am. First stop was at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

This cathedral is just stunning. It is one of those odd things where when you first see it you feel as if you have seen it before because it is such a well known image. It is as if there is a giant 3-D cut out of a famous photo in front of you. Part of you is in awe and the rest of you is just thinking, "yep, there it is, exactly as it should be".


The cathedral is covered with carved sculptures. It seems as if every single figure is different. I would not be surprised if I learned that there aren’t any duplicate sculptures here.

This is one of the sculptures above the main doors. In the center is the Vergin Mary holding baby Jesus, on each sides of her are angels. On the right kneeling with the crown is the king. On the left in the corner, the small bowing figure is the man who gave most of the money to build the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral is quite dark and quite crowded. I really should have taken out my tripod for this, but realized that too late.


Stained glass




The cathedral goes very high and more stained glass is up in these upper reaches.



I took out the 70-200 EFL lens that Aren was nice enough to lend me to get some shots of the high glass.




After seeing the inside we did do something here that was different and completely unknown to me. Across the front courtyard of Notre Dame is the crypte. I had no idea what was going on when I went down there and was completely ready for dead bodies. Instead, I found the old ruins that existed before Notre Dame. Here were Gallo Roman ruins dating back to the first century. On top of them were other buildings from the Medieval period. It was an archeological dig under there, just foundations and doorways left for the most part. It just amazes me that all of this was just built over.

Doorway to cellar


This is an old street, it is about 3 feet wide


Point zero is in front of Notre Dame and is the point where all streets of Paris are drawn from. Up until the 1800s Notre Dame was the center of the city. When Haussmann redrew the map he reoriented many of the streets to point towards the opera house instead.


One of the things that makes Notre Dame so interesting is the time in which it was built. The construction started in 1163 and it took almost 200 years to build! When I compare this to Himeji Castle in Japan, which was built in the 1200s I felt it was remarkably beautifully constructed and ornate for the time period. Compared to Notre Dame it looks like a wood shack.







These buttresses help keep to support the walls. As they built the thin walls of the cathedral higher and higher they became to form stress factors. So they were reinforced with these buttresses.






A quick, and I am certain very overlooked, memorial is very close to Notre Dame. On the very edge of the Island of the City is a memorial for the thousands of jews deported out of France to the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. The French feel very badly for this, as this is the second memorial we have seen, the other is between the Military Academy and the Eiffel Tower.

Each bead represents a life lost




We crossed back over to the Right Bank for some lunch and ice cream and passed this American jazz band playing a very southern style of jazz music. It was a very welcoming sound. Paris is a famous Mecca for American jazz musicians. I believe it started in the early 20th century due to their racism being so much less than ours. Black musicians could make a living much easier in Paris than they could America. American jazz is still popular there today. We actually had a jazz saxophonist in our French class who toured France a number of times with his band.

The line to the song they were playing was, "when God named the promise land he named it Arkansas"


On the right bank, very close to Notre Dame we went down this street filled with little boutique shops of every genre. From cheese to scarves, every shop here had a specialty. We got lunch and ice cream, as well as a few little items in some of the other stores.








Back to the other side of the river


Now we were on the left bank. This portion of the city is very artsy. All long the Seine right here are little vendors selling books and magazines and art of the city.

We went into the Shakespeare Company book store. This store was opened in the late teens and was a popular hang out for Bernard Shaw, Hemmingway, James Joyce among others. Upstairs is a small apartment that they still rent out for free for impoverished writers free of rent. The vast majority of the books here are in English










If you have visions of sitting on the patio of a little Parisian cafe sipping a cafe au lait and watching the people walk by, the area around the Island of the City is the place to do it. This is cafe city. And yes, I did do this :)






And uh this


We walked from here over to St. Chappell which is known for its stained glass. While this cathedral is no where near as grand as Notre Dame it is certainly very pretty. I could not get any good exterior shots of the cathedral half because of its location and half because of the work currently being done on its facade. There is work constantly being done in this city to keep up appearances. Centuries old stone is always being cleaned, worn ornaments are being repaired, it is always something.

I decided to take my tripod out, boy was I glad I did








at this point I was forced to put my tripod away. I probably had another good shot or two in me.

From here we saw Marie Antoinette's cell prior to her death. It wasn't very exiting, and you do have to pay to see it if you don't have a museum pass. Unless you are a total French Revolution junkie, I wouldn't spend the money. I know, from the outside you think it is something you want to see, just to say you saw it. But no photos are allowed and it is 8 euro. I would skip it.

After this we walked through le Dauphine which in its time (1500s) was the pinnacle of urban planning. Now it is just a very cute old area with many old buildings and nice parks, and more repair work.


This area is right next to the Pont Neuf bridge. This "new" bridge was the very first bridge to cross from the right bank to the left. Before this all of the bridges only went as far as the island, and it caused a ton of traffic and congestion because of this. Commissioned by Henri III. It took 30 years to make and was made using entirely new construction techniques. Each stone was hauled out of quarries from directly below the city (note to the French: it typically is not a good idea to remove the bed rock of your city, end note) and hand carved to fit. It took thirty years to complete the bridge.


At this point it was about 3 in the afternoon. Our group of 15 students had slowly dwindled throughout the day, even though all of this stuff was technically required. We were down to about 9 at this point. Four of us decided to go back to Notre Dame and climb to the top, the other 5 went off to do their own thing. We got a drink at the cafe across the street from Notre Dame and watched the gypsies try to fool stupid American tourists to get close enough to them to take their money. As a note, keep your money as close to you as possible at all times. I keep mine in a pocket on the inside of my always buttoned coat. Back pockets, backpacks, just say no, especially at touristy free places like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. If they ask you if you speak English say nothing and walk away. They might follow. Luckily we had no problems, but a boy in our group was most likely pick pocketed today, either that or he lost his wallet. Optimism is always welcomed.

After our nice break we got in line to see the top of Notre Dame. Again, this is something you have to pay for, but with the museum pass it is free. You still have to wait in line though, first time we've had to the whole trip.

Getting to the top of Notre Dame requires 400 steps up a spiral staircase. Not for the claustrophobic or those who haven't been keeping up on their New Years Resolution. Note how worn the steps are. There are cut marks on the steps, they have replaced the worn part at least once already


However, it isn't 400 steps non stop. There are two stopping points on the way up. This is because there is only one stairway up. They have to seamlessly transition from going up to going down, because there is no passing on these stairs as you can clearly see. To do this they converted one room into a book store.

In the back of the little bookstore is this beautiful staircase that is apparently the way to Esmeralda’s cell. As you may remember from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Quasimodo saves Esmeralda he takes her away to a high up room to protect her. Apparently, this room is the best described in the whole novel. The room is exactly as Hugo says it is.


The second stop is on the first balcony of one of the large towers in front of the cathedral. You can view one of the bells here as well as walk partially around the tower. The best view of the gargoyles are at this level. This is where the best photo op is, which is good, because this is where the battery of my camera died. :(




It's not much further to the top and you can walk all of the way around the tower up here. You get a fabulous view of the spire as well as the city.

When we came back down it was already after 5. We piled into the subway and came back to the hotel. After the best shower ever and a good rest we went back to the Lebanese place for dinner, this time with more people. Everyone agrees, it is by far the best food any of us have had in Paris thus far. I'll get the address for everyone.